Daylight Savings Time, CTU Style

Some interesting developments in this week's episode of 24. (If you haven't seen it yet, come back later.) This episode was your basic run-of-the-mill season finale. The tone, the action, the happy ending twists, and even the dramatic music as Jack once again saved the day. The only problem? By my calculations there are still six hours left.

It's actually a rather smart, non-plot twist by the show's producers. Wrapping up a going-nowhere-anyway story in order to move on to bigger and badder things may help stem the tide of negative criticism and go a ways towards restoring the show's reputation. Though that doesn't seem promising when you consider the set-up for the remaining hours. In the series' most ridiculous coincidence to date, Scary-Chinese-Diplomat-Man calls just at the moment The Ricker is gazing in wonderment at Jack's one man handy work. (BTW: is it just me or was Fayed's death a little bit of a rip-off of both the first Die Hard and Lethal Weapon 2?)

Anyway, the rest of the season will obviously deal with Jack's going rogue to get Audrey out of the hands of SCDM as well as the repercussions of the attempted presidential assassination. My only gripe, Jack's dad is still gone and now has seemingly nothing to do with the events to come. Plus, last we saw Logan he was flatlining in the back of the ambulance. Will the day end with Jack spitting on his grave, or will we be left to assume Logan's fate for ourselves?

One can only hope the producers have a better vision for the early morning hours than they did for the rest of day. I still can't make sense of Gradenko chopping his own hand off, betraying the only person who can provide him some sort of medical attention, only to die from blood loss stumbling under the boardwalk, where the moonlit surf literally adds salt to his wounds. At least next week's preview looks good. I love Jack telling Pres. Whispers-a-lot that he owes him. Gee, you think?